Anything for the Ones I love (Re-Write)
by Stwolfgang 'Peas' Ambrose
Summary: The story of a young Peashooter as he battles against all odds to protect the ones he loves. But will his dedication prove his ultimate downfall? (DISCLAIMER!) I don't own PvZ, I own the plot. (This is a re-write of my first Fanfiction under the same name.)
1. Chapter 1: A new beginning

**A/N: Hey, I guess I'm breaking my hiatus now, but I've decided that my earlier stories, especially this one and AFSTAA, needed a re-write. So here you go, the beginning of AFTOIL re-written. The stories content and dialogue will pretty much remain the same, I'm just rewriting mostly the format of the story and fixing as many mistakes as I can. I will keep the original stories up, but at some point I might take them down. So until I need another A/N, I hope you enjoy, and let's get on with the chapter.**

What a way to go. Vanquished on a crumbling street in a ruined city. The cracked pavement seemed like a fitting resting place, grass pushing its way up through the cracks. The only way the scene could be improved if it weren't littered with zombie corpses. When I think of the last 10 minutes of my life, I realized how badly I had failed. My family, mother, father, brother, they had all sacrificed themselves for my survival, and here I was, dying, without accomplishing anything in my pitiful and useless life. Knowing how hopeless it was to hold on, I began to submit myself to the dark void that would finally be the end of my story.

Unfortunately for me, the void suddenly filled with light, I could feel life being breathed back into my body. After a few seconds, I was to be shocked.

"Please say I'm not too late." Through the pain, I heard her soft and sincere voice.

"I don't think you are." I managed to groan through the pain.

"Oh thank goodness. You know, I would call you an idiot for thinking you could take on 50 zombies by yourself, but seeing as you're injured, I'll save it for later." I was not impressed and she must have sensed it. "You fought amazingly by the way. Oh, the names Alison." Opening my eyes for the first time since being vanquished, I was shocked, the literally ' _hottest_ ' sunflower I had ever seen was leaning over my battered body, trying to heal it.

"Uh, umm, the-the names Pete. Has anyone told you you're hot?" Realizing what I said, I immediately felt embarrassed. Alison on the other was dying of laughter. Getting a better look at her, I realized Alison was smaller than most sunflowers I'd meet. She wore a crooked pair of aviators and her petals, they were actual fire! Soon, Alison began to calm.

"Yes Pete, they have." To my surprise, her tone turned sombre. "But they're all gone now, sent far away or dead." She began to cry. Pushing through the pain, I sat up and hugged her.

"Don't be sad Alison, my entire family, friends, neighbours, all the plants I knew in my short childhood were killed during a nighttime raid we weren't prepared for, I barely escaped." The horrible memories triggered something in the back of my head and I began to tear up a little.

"Oh Pete, I'm really sorry." Her tone and expression showed she wasn't lying.

"It's fine, they still live in here." I pointed to my chest, "And, as long as you and I, remember them here, then they never truly die."

"That's really did help, thank you Pete. Look, I want you to promise me something." This came as a surprise to me, as I had only just met her, but I looked into her eyes.

"Anything." I said in a voice loaded with conviction.

"I want you to promise me, you won't die or desert me, promise me that please." I wiped away my tears.

"Alison, I promise." She immediately cried in joy and hugged me.

"Thank you Pete, thank you so much." I returned the hug.

"No Alison, thank you for saving my life, without you, I would be dead." And with that, we set out into the crumbling city, my arm around her for support.


	2. Chapter 2: A friendly face

With Alison's help, we managed to cover a few kilometers in an hour, unimpressive if I wasn't injured, but in my current state, it was definitely impressive. Despite only covering a few kilometers, we still hadn't seen a moving creature, living or undead. So it was a surprise to hear the sound of peas colliding with rotten flesh. Realizing the fight ahead signified plants, I grabbed Alison and hypered in the direction of the fight. Realizing how stupid of an idea that was, I felt like an idiot. Every Part of my body was aching. Despite the pain, I knew the importance of getting in there and helping out those plants. Letting go of Alison, I turned to her and made sure I looked the best I could.

"I want you to know I care about you, and that I don't want to break my promise." She gave me the most questioning look I had ever seen.

"What are you getting at Pete, and yes, I know you care about me." I looked into her eyes and gave her my biggest ' _don't kill me for this_ ' eyes.

"I'm going to go help those plants..." Before I could say anything else, Alison began to yell.

"ARE YOU INSANE?! You're going to get yourself killed, I mean you nearly did an hour ago. Do you have a deathwish?" When she finished, she stood there

and glared at me. After a few seconds of staring, I garnered the courage to talk.

"It's the right thing to do Alison. I would rather die protecting you, or any other plants life. I'm not important." My stubborn sense of honour seemed

to be getting through to her, unfortunately it did backfire on me.

"Fine Pete, but if you're fighting, I am to." Now was her turn to be stubborn. Realizing how much time we've wasted arguing, I didn't bother saying no.

"Alright then, but if I go down, and it's not safe for you to revive me, don't try." She glared at me again and stated rather bluntly the shortcomings of that plan.

"You're really going to go back on your promise? You promised you wouldn't die or leave me." Realizing what I said, I tried to make it up to her.

"I will try my best not to die, I promise." Grabbing Alison, we set off to help the plants fighting just down the street.

* * *

Seeing the size of the undead horde ahead, I was surprised that there were still living plants in the vicinity. As we got closer to the horde though, we realized why the plants still fighting hadn't fallen yet, they had barricaded themselves inside an abandoned skyscraper. I released Alison and rushed forward, Alison fired little specks of fire past me to cover my advance on the horde. The first few browncoats weren't to hard to take out, a pea to the head and they fell. Unfortunately for me though, there appeared to be more heavily armoured browncoats than there unarmoured comrades. Despite the odds, I managed to make a reasonable dent in the horde, with Alison's help of course. Over the groans of the undead, a tired voice yelled out.

"IN HERE, THE FRONT DOORS ABOUT TO GIVE IN, PLEASE HELP!" The tired voice had clearly been fighting for a long time.

"GET SOMEWHERE SAFE IF I'M NOT BACK SOON!" I yelled back at Alison. Not waiting for a reply, I hypered straight into the center of horde and dropped a chili bean bomb by the front door. A few seconds later, a large number of zombies were sent flying. Despite the achievement of clearing the door, I didn't plan this far ahead. I was now completely surrounded and too tired to hyper out. Realizing this, I decided that I wasn't going down without a fight. Despite fighting to the best of my abilities, and the supporting fire of the plants inside the tower, I began to feel my health draining away, every hit from a zombie feeling harder than the last. I was about to go down when a bunch of little flaming specks flew past me and distracted my assailants long enough for me to get out of the horde and into a better position.

"Alison, what would I do without you?" Her petals appeared to burn brighter at the compliment. Rooting myself in place, I went gatling and mowed down the remaining 40 zombies. When the last one finally died, I unrooted and just collapsed in exhaustion.

"Is that the last of them?" One of the plants inside spoke out to us. Too exhausted, I let Alison reply for us.

"Umm, yeah. I could use some though, my friend is exhausted." Thanks Alison, I was exhausted, but I didn't need help moving. A Commando Peashooter came out and looked over Alison and myself.

"No wonder your friend is exhausted, he just took one hell of a beating. The names Peter by the way, and you would be." He held up his pod to Alison to shake she shook his pod and introduced herself.

"Oh, nice to meet you Peter, the name's Alison." When Peter came over to me, he didn't bother trying to shake pods. Instead, he bent over and was about to pick me up.

"No, I'm fine." I lied to him, in actual fact I wasn't really, I didn't want to feel useless. Rolling over, I tried to get up, unfortunately though, my beaten body finally gave in and stopped co-operating with me. I collapsed onto the asphalt and blacked out.


	3. Chapter 3: A welcome meal

Coming to, I expected to still be laying on the asphalt out the front of the tower. Sitting up, I was surprised to be in a bed in a dark, bleak room. There appeared to be medical cabinets on the walls though, as well as a decrepit sign that stated I was in an infirmary. Getting out of the bed, I surprisingly felt good. My body didn't ache and I could finally think clearly. Walking out of the dark infirmary, I turned down into a hallway, coming from the end, I could hear voices, one, distinctly Alison's. When I reached the end of the dark hallway, I stepped onto a balcony that overlooked a large garden. Seeing the garden, I immediately knew why the zombies were attacking the tower. Heading down the stairs, I went into the kitchen.

When I got into the kitchen, Alison looked up from her breakfast, got up, and tackled me! She then proceeded to surprise me.

"HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU TERRIFY ME LIKE THAT! I was so worried, if you scare me like that again, I will. Kill. You." When she finished yelling, she got off me and went back to her breakfast. I still continued to lay on the floor for a couple of seconds in utter shock and silence. When I got up, Peter the Commando Pea came over and properly introduced himself.

"The names Peter, Lieutenant Colonel Peter," He held out his pod to shake. As I shook it he continued. "Nice to make your acquaintance Pete. Alison could not stop talking about how she was going to kill you after you blacked out." Laughing at his description of Alison after I blacked out, I got a proper look at him. He was bigger than me, not by much, wore a banana skin bandana, and had a flat topped buzz cut. We stopped shaking pods when I decided to reply.

"Nice to make yours to. How long have I been out?" Peter's answer was thankfully quick.

"You've been out for about three days" Three days! No wonder I didn't hurt. Before I could reply, Peter tapped me from behind and he led me over to the kitchen bench and introduced me to the five other plants. Pointing to a normal sunflower, he introduced her first.

"This is our resident medic, Sonatra. With Alison's help, they healed your injuries." She smiled at me and waved, I waved back uneasily and peeked over at Alison who was giving me a glare that could kill an All-Star. Peter then introduced me to a cactus and her friend, a garlic drone.

"This is my Lieutenant, Cherie," The Cactus winked at me, "-and her best friend, Gala." I nodded to Gala. Peter then introduced me to a Chomper.

"And this is my best mate, Cole, we've been through a lot together, like you and Alison, ay?" Alison looked up from her breakfast and stuck Peter with a glare that made him wish he hadn't mentioned it. She then turned her attention to me, she stuck me with the death glare. I quickly looked over to Peter who swiftly introduced me to the last plant, A quiet plasma pea.

"And this is my Captain, Wulf." I shook pods with him, then took a seat at the bench. Unfortunately for me though, I had to sit next to Alison. Not that I don't like sitting with her, just that in the mood she was currently in, any word you say, she will turn it into a weapon.

The next half an hour was uneventful. I enjoyed the first food I had eaten for over four days and Alison even loosened up and joined in the conversation. When I finished eating, I asked Peter if he could show me around, unable to, he got Wulf to show me. I got up from the bench not to long after Wulf and followed him out into the garden. Alison joined us and we went up onto the roof. The view from the roof was amazing, I could see the entire city, and on the horizon, the border, suburbia. Walking to the edge, I took a seat and took in the view. After a few seconds, Alison and Wulf came over and sat with me. Wulf was first to speak.

"So, Pete, how did you end up in this city?" Unprepared for the question and unready to talk about it, I brushed it off.

"I don't want to talk about it, it's a long story and hard to tell." I nearly broke down in tears at the thought, but with Wulf there, I was able to hold it in. Probably sensing my distress, Alison pulled me into a hug and Wulf apoligised.

"I'm sorry Pete, I didn't mean to bring up the past if it's that painful to you. If it's any condolence to you, I have lost the one I love, I ended up here because

of the loss." Wulf stared down at the sheer drop off the side of the building. I reached out and pet him on the back. Alison spoke to Wulf as I pet his back.

"I'm so sorry Wulf, we both have suffered as well, and I guess we're all a big family. We've all suffered, we're willing to help each other out and be there for each other." Wulf and I looked over at Alison who gave us the biggest smile ever. I was about to hug Alison when an alarm rang out from inside.


	4. Chapter 4: The siege

Getting up, I asked Wulf what the alarm meant. As he and Alison got up, he told me that it meant a zombie assault was coming. Wulf and Alison headed off down stairs so I followed them. We ended up in the kitchen with the other plants, Peter, Cole, Sonatra, Cherie and Gala. It seemed Gala was about to head out on a quick reconnaissance sweep of the zombie force. When Gala left, Peter turned to Alison and myself as he addressed us.

"Alright, Pete, you're going to be on the frontline with Cole, Wulf and myself. Alison, you're going to help Sonatra if one of us end up in trouble." Both Alison and myself nodded at Peter, we knew it was a stupid idea to argue. When Gala got back, she began to describe the horde coming after the garden.

"There are about 100 browncoats, most of them are shielded. I was unable to spot any of Zomboss's elite zombies, but we will see." Gala went on to talk privately with Cherie while Peter, Cole, Wulf and myself headed downstairs to prepare the fortifications. With the garden being on the second highest floor, it gives us the ability to fall back if necessary while keeping the garden relatively far away from the battle. When we reached the ground floor, we had barely begun reinforcing the barricades when an explosion blasted a hole through the main door, the assault had begun.

* * *

I turned to the gaping hole where the door once stood, in it stood an All-Star revving his football cannon. I leapt to the side, tackling Wulf into some cover as the All-Star opened fire on him. I peeked out of my temporary cover to the noise of a yell piercing the air. It was Cole, and he was hit, hard. The All-Star had tackled Cole as the Chomper had tried to get behind the All-Star. Peter, clearly mad at the All-Star, ran at him and launched a furious barrage of peas at the All-Star. Caught slightly off guard, the All-Star deployed a dummy tackle shield in front of Peter and opened fire at the rudimentary cover I shared with Wulf. Grabbing a Chili Bean Bomb, I lobbed it from behind our cover to try and distract the All-Star. As the armoured zombie jumped away from the explosive bean, I ran out from my cover and kept them distracted, running a couple circles around them as Sonatra and Alison dragged Cole into cover so they could heal him. Once they had retrieved Cole and Peter was in some cover, I went to leap into some cover of my own, only to be knocked out of one of the large windows, shattering it and leaving most of my back cut up, by the All-Star, and into the street. I rolled halfway across the avenue and onto the overgrown island in the centre of it. When I came to my senses, I got up and limped back to the tower to find Wulf laying on the ground unconscious while Peter seemed to be in a deadly dance with the All-Star. The All-Star's movement seemed to try and preempt Peter's, while the Commando Pea's motions were merely reactions to the All-Star. Despite this, Peter was well bruised and the All-Star was both burned, probably caused by Wulf, and seemed to be in slight pain, most likely caused by Peter. I clambered back into the tower through the shattered window and landed a couple shots of my own on the All-Star, causing them to stumble and drop their cannon. Cole rolled out from behind his cover and spat on the All-Star trapping them in place and allowing Peter and myself to rip through their armour with our Pea Gatlings, while the Sunflower were able to grab Wulf and revive him behind cover. Once the bloody All-Star was free of their prison of Chomper saliva, they retreated through the front door, attempting to get away. Just when our hopes of nailing him before he escaped were gone, a high-velocity spike implanted itself in the back of the All-Stars head, finally felling them.

* * *

With the All-Star gone, we turned our attention to the browncoats that were approaching the tower. While Cherie and Gala had managed to pick off a number of the browncoats, there was still a large number of browncoats approaching the tower. Cole was weak, but he was still capable of fighting while Wulf tried to convince the Sunflowers he was fine. This meant that only me, Peter and Cole are the only frontline defenders while Cherie and Gala provided supporting fire from above and afar.

"What's the plan?" Peter turned to me to answer my question.

"I have no clue," He called out to Sonatra, "Sonatra, don't let Wulf out to help us until you think he's fine." Peter then turned to Cole and told him to be careful I rooted just behind the holey door and went Gatling. Cole lay spikeweeds all around the front of the door and Peter prepared for a fight. When the browncoats were in range, I opened fire, by the time I unrooted I had managed to fell 30 odd browncoats. For the next minute, Peter and I thinned out the number of browncoats down to around 40. Now Cole joined in and began breaking shields and eating the browncoats that got close enough. The last 20 browncoats managed to get into close and started attack me and Peter, if it weren't for Cole, we would have been knocked out. When the last browncoat finally fell, we quickly reinforced the door and locked it up. Tired, we all headed upstairs and prepared for the night.


	5. Chapter 5: Onward to suburbia

I entered the kitchen to the smell of a broth, Cherie was in the kitchen preparing dinner while she talked with Gala. I took a seat at the bench where the other plants, Alison, Peter, Sonatra, Cole and Wulf, had already taken a seat. Rubbing one of the bruises that had developed on my stem, Alison reached over and healed it. I looked at her with thanks in my eyes.

"Thank you for that, Alison." I turned my attention to Wulf after thanking her. "I'm sorry Wulf, if I had seen the All-Star, maybe it would have been me left unconscious, instead of you." Wulf looked up and managed a weak smile, he looked terrible. He was covered in bruises and had a bandage wrapped around his bulb. His reply would make Alison's petals burn brighter.

"I appreciate the thought, Pete, but I'm fine. Though I may not be here without the intervention of Sonatra and Alison." Sonatra looked over at Alison and the two smiled at each other.

When Cherie served up dinner, which was a broth, a strange whizzing sound came from above the tower. Before anyone could react, a canister with a message on it came flying through the window and the whizzing sound got further away. I went over and picked up the canister and read the message aloud.

* _To the plants holding the central tower in Zomcity, this is commander Dominic of the plants fighting in west suburbia. Congratulations on holding out for so long. Your garden has grown to the point where the zombies have no chance of destroying it, consider your mission complete. Please return to suburbia, we need the firepower._ *

Looking up from the canister, I got to see the shocked expressions on the faces of my peers. Peter was first to break the silence.

"I think it's best, we sleep this over and discuss it in the morning, it's been a long day, especially for some of us." he looked at Cole and Wulf. Peter and Sonatra were first to leave for their room. Since I was sharing a room with Alison, she led the way to the room, somewhere down the hallway on the right side, was our room. It wasn't the biggest room, only enough space for 2 beds and a set of draws. Alison took the bed on the left, which left me with the bed on the right. It was a small single bed that had a single pillow and sheet on it. Hoping in, I exchanged a goodnight with Alison and went to sleep.

* * *

Waking up in the morning, I found that Alison was already up and making her bed, I got up and stretched a bit, letting out an extended groan.

"Good morning, Alison." She turned around, a little surprised.

"Morning Pete. Do you think we'll be heading to suburbia?" I nodded to her and then made my bed. Heading downstairs with her, we had breakfast with the other plants. After the uneventful and oddly quiet breakfast, Peter addressed the elephant in the room.

"What do we do?" He looked around at all of us while we clearly thought of an answer, Sonatra would be the first to speak up.

"I think it would be fun, adventuring through the city to reach suburbia." She smiled at us and Cherie nodded at her, the momentum was starting to swing towards moving out. Cole was next to give an answer.

"I agree, it seems like fun and, we need a change of scenery." Peter laughed at his friends sentence, because chompers didn't have visible eyes, he found it funny that his friend was talking about scenery that he probably couldn't see. Picking up on his friends laughing, Cole walked over to Peter and slapped his friends.

"Hey, what was that for?" Peter asked jokingly. During this time, I decided that it would be a good idea to voice my opinion.

"I think that heading off to suburbia is a great idea. It'll be a change of pace." I tried to smile, but to no avail. Despite the continuation of the discussion for a couple more minutes, the decision was obvious. We were going to fight our way to suburbia, or die trying.

When we finally left the tower, it was midday. According to Gala, the trek to suburbia was going to take us the rest of the day. We headed out on an easterly heading, Gala our guide to the border. It was late evening by the time we could at least see the border, a mesh fence divided suburbia from Zomcity. We began to pick up the pace and within the following half an hour, we reached the border. I hyper jumped over the fence with Wulf and prepared to go back over to get Alison when a set of pods wrapped around my stem and held me in place. I tried to break free but I couldn't, whatever was holding me had a powerful grip. Suddenly a scream pierced the air and I looked up to see Alison, Sonatra and Cole being captured by zombies. Peter lay unconscious on the grass, he was picked up by a zombie and was being carted away. I yelled at the plant that was holding me in place.

"LET GO! I have to go get them." The plant that held me in place simply grunted and replied.

"There's nothing you can do for them, they're going to be taken to Dr. Zomboss." Alison's screams were haunting. The one plant that I promised to never leave was gone.

And I couldn't help but feel guilty.


	6. Chapter 6: A heartbreaking promise (Pt1)

My efforts to fight off the unknown plant ended with me getting hit on the back of the head. I looked over at Wulf and the cactus that was dragging him, he looked absolutely miserable, and now I was starting to feel that way too. Realizing that there was no point in fighting, I gave up and let the plant drag me to wherever it was we were going, better to save my energy then waste it fighting against someone who was supposed to be an ally. Just as we began to lose sight of the border, a strange column of smoke rose up the side of the fence before dissipating. The plants dragging us stopped and looked towards the fence. Suddenly out of nowhere, a rocket raced towards us and hit the Cactus that was dragging Wulf, directly. The cactus was blown backwards and collapsed while Wulf was blown forward. The plant that was dragging me, released me and raced forward towards the source of the rocket. I took advantage of the situation and crawled over too Wulf to see how he was. While still conscious, Wulf looked like he couldn't take anymore. I helped him up and began looking for a place to hide out for the night. Just as I found a house that looked abandoned, bright yellow pellets flew past me. I opened the door and got Wulf inside, shutting the door in a rush. Once I knew the door was secure, I began to look around the place, it definitely was abandoned. All that was left was a battered couch, a few smashed photos and a half drunken bottle of water. I let Wulf have the water that was left in the bottle, I could wait a few days for a drink. The next hour was uneventful, Wulf went to sleep, I took watch duty, and there wasn't a single noise that was out of the ordinary. It was going fine until an ominous purple gas began to enter the room through the door. I opened the door only to be be immediately paralyzed by the stench of the gas. I couldn't move, I was too busy bent over gagging on the gas, it felt like it was eating its way through me. Wulf must have heard my gagging and dragged me out of the gas cloud. I turned to him and tried to thank him, but no words came from my mouth so I nodded my thanks to him. He simply nodded in return and went back to the couch. As the gas cloud cleared, I pondered where it had come from.

My question answered itself a few seconds later when a ZPG hit where I would have been. I realized that our position was unsafe, considering another one of Zomboss' elite were around. Not wanting to worry Wulf, I closed the door headed to the window to try and find the soldier. While I was unable to spot the soldier, it could definitely see me. As I looked through the window, I was barraged by yellow pellets, each pellet leaving a cut or incision where it hit. I quickly ducked behind the wall and tried to figure out where the shots were from. As I tried to figure out where the shots were coming from, an alarm sounded out at a nearby house. I could hear a mix of plants getting ready for battle. After a few minutes, the sound of gunfire and plant fire sounded out across the street. Deciding it would be safe, I looked out the window and watched the battle. Despite being outnumbered 4-1, the foot soldiers were holding up well. The 6 zombies were holding off on a roof, this prevented the Chompers from getting at them, while the roof provided them enough cover to avoid most of the plants fire. From my angle, I could get in a few lucky shots on the foot soldiers before they knew where the fire was coming from. Wulf, intrigued by the sound of the fighting, came over to the window and looked out across the street.

"What's going on?" I turned to Wulf and explained what was happening.

"About six of Zomboss' elite foot soldiers are holding out against around twenty-four plants." To our surprise, the zombies all bent over and unleashed a barrage of ZPG's on the plants, the yells and screams of the vanquished plants was haunting, Wulf and myself wincing at the merciless barrage that had befallen our comrades..

"We need to help." I nodded to Wulf my agreement, we needed to help before anymore plants got hurt. Just then I had an idea and shared it with Wulf.

"From our angle we're slightly behind the zombies and they haven't noticed us, yet. If we were to charge them from behind, we might be able to get a couple of them before they get us." Wulf nodded, he knew that we were screwed if we didn't help and screwed if we did, better to die doing something than die doing nothing.

* * *

Wulf and myself headed out the door and snuck up to the house the Soldiers were on. I grabbed Wulf's pod and hypered us up onto the roof, the soldiers gunfire blocking out the sound of Wulf and myself, allowing us to sneak up to them unnoticed. We both dropped chili bean bombs by the Soldiers and waited for them to go off before we opened fire. Just before they exploded, four of the six foot soldiers rocket jumped off the roof and down onto the ground, the other two were caught off guard and were vanquished by the bombs. While two of the zombies were dealing with the plants that were originally causing them problems, the other two targeted Wulf and myself. Despite ducking as fast as we could, we both were hit by quite a few pellets. I was first to get up and return fire. Despite unloading five peas onto the foot soldier, they still stood, and returned fire with avengance, every pellet leaving their mark. I ducked back down while Wulf unleashed a barrage of peas onto the other Foot Soldier, vanquishing them. Before Wulf could duck down again, one of the other Foot Soldiers nailed him with a barrage of pellets. Despite the barrage, I was impressed, Wulf stayed up and got ready for another barrage. The two remaining foot soldiers must have known that the battle was going against them. To cover their retreat, one dropped a gas cloud canister near a group of plants behind a wall while the other dropped one on the roof Wulf and myself were on. I immediately recognized the purple gas and grabbed Wulf promptly as I leapt off the roof and onto the ground with him.

When we landed, a group of Peashooters, Chompers and Sunflowers began to make their way over towards us. Not knowing what the plants were going to say, I prepared to hyper both Wulf and myself out of there. Just as I began to hyper, a barrage of pellets got me from behind and sent me into the dirt, unconscious.


	7. Chapter 6: A heartbreaking promise (Pt2)

Waking up in a strange room was becoming too often for my liking. Sitting up, I looked around. Unlike the decaying infirmary in the tower, this room was filled with activity. Sunflowers were moving between the beds, checking on the injured plants that occupied them while a couple of cacti directed visitors and new patients at what seemed to be a makeshift reception desk at the far end of the infirmary. A sunflower noticed me and came over.

"Good afternoon," The sunflower looked at a pad just above the bed I was in and gave me a questioning look. "Sir, do you need anything? Food, drink, just ask." I was about to ask for a glass of water when one of the cacti at reception signalled the sunflower that I was talking with. When the sunflower came back after about a minute, she asked me to follow her to reception. Not wanting to make a show in public, I got up and followed the sunflower to the front desk. When I got to the front desk, I began to notice a strange sensation on my back. I was about to feel my back when the sunflower grabbed my pod and said it was a bandage. Frowning, there was something I had forgotten, but knew it was extremely important to me. One of the cacti at reception named Julia started to talk to me.

"Peashooter, you're wanted at HQ for questioning, you can go quietly or be dragged there by force. Your choice." The cactus gave me a stare of loathing, the sunflower walked away to attend to a chomper. I knew I was in no condition to fight an entire infirmary full of potentially hostile plants, so I submitted on one condition.

"I will go quietly," A chomper came over and got ready to escort me, but I shrugged him off. "On one condition." The cactus simply laughed and said.

"You're in no condition to negotiate." I stuck her with a look of absolute hate and told her my condition anyway.

"I don't care, I will go quietly once I find out where my friend is. If not, I don't care if I die, I've got nothing to lose." Saying those words struck me hard, the loss of Alison and the others hit harder than any physical wound could. The cactus decided to humour me and told me where Wulf was.

"You stubborn idiot, your friend is in a jail cell in the HQ, they will release him if you cooperate." I nodded to the cactus and let the chomper escort me to the plant HQ for this sector.

* * *

After the ten minute walk to the HQ, the chomper left me in the ' _care_ ' of a couple of Ice Peas. As they led me through the bland halls of the HQ to a meeting room on the far right side of the building, a strange thought kept going over me, what is going to happen to Wulf if they decide I'm not co-operating, and how will I save my friends. In the meeting room, there was an arrogant looking Berry Shooter sitting opposite me, a Power Chomper and a Power Flower. For the first half minute, nobody talked, we simply glared at each other, well they all glared at me. The Berry Shooter was first to speak.

"So, you're the Peashooter that was causing trouble last night? What's your name?" The Berry Shooter stuck me with a look that said, talk or else. I replied honestly.

"Pete. That's my name." The Berry Shooter seemed unimpressed, I was unimpressed at the fact he didn't introduce himself, I at least would like to know who I'm about to kill. The Berry Shooter replied.

"Where are my manners? The names Adrian." He gave me a condescending smile and continued. "I can see it in your eyes, you hate me, don't worry, I won't hurt your friend, for now." That bastard, I was tempted to jump across the table and strangle him there, but I did fancy not ending up as a Chompers dinner. "Now then, why are you here? To get intel for the zombies I guess?" His assumption made me sick, some news of a traitorous Peashooter named Peater had been spreading around suburbia, he assumed I might be like this Peater than. I simply replied.

"I came here with my friends on the request of commander Dominic." Adrian gave me a questioning look.

"I have no idea who that is, either you're lying or been tricked. Look, I will make you a deal, fight at least one battle for me, and I will help find out what's going on. I can't trust anyone these days, the rumors of treachery are to concerning." Adrian sent me off with the Power Chomper who escorted me to a lawn where he said I would be staying while I earned the trust of Adrian.

* * *

When I walked on to the lawn, I was stunned, literally. A Power Cactus shot me and came over, a angry expression on her face.

"You, Peashooter, I have word to pick with you. You are reason brother is in hospital, I would kill you right now if Adrian said he not need you." The Cactus grabbed my pod and pulled me up. "I will be your roommate while moy brat recovers." I pulled the spike out of my stem and replied to the Power Cactus, who had a Russian accent.

"Great, the name's Pete." She gave me a quizzical look.

"Until you earn Adrian's trust, we are not to give you important things like names, just call me Spike." Knowing it was a waste of time trying to make acquaintances with the other plants, I asked Spike where our room was, headed there, and waited for my first mission.


	8. Chapter 7: To earn a plants trust

The lack of activity over the last few days was driving me insane. 'Spike' loved to hassle me about anything, Adrian hadn't given me a mission, yet, and the zombies have been oddly quiet. I barely left the room I was sharing with Spike because I didn't fancy talking with anyone who was going to be potentially hostile. A couple of times, Wulf was permitted to visit, under the escort of guards, so it was surprise to hear the door to the room being knocked. Spike just walked in while the escorts for Wulfs visits simply announced their presence. I was going to get up and answer, but I assumed it was for Spike, so I left it. I didn't get the door till someone started yelling.

"PETE, ADRIAN WANTS TO SEE YOU!" Finally something to do. I got up and opened the door to be greeted by the same Power Chomper that escorted me to the lawn after the first meeting. The Chomper headed out down the hall so I set off after him. It took us a few minutes to get to the meeting room where Adrian told me to sit. Sitting, Adrian briefed me about what was going on.

"So, Pete, I have figured out a way for you to earn my trust. A few hours ago, we lost contact with a garden being guarded by some of my best plants. I'm going to send in a 4 plant team, 3 of them are true veterans of the war and are capable, the fourth, is you. Prove yourself to my veterans, and you prove yourself to me." I mulled over the thought of working with 3 random plants on a mission that I still didn't know what we were going to do.

"What are we doing for this mission?" I waited for a reply while Adrian thought about what to say.

"First mission, find out what happened and if possible, get the other plants out. Secondly, if possible, defend the garden that was originally being guarded." Adrian turned to the same Power Flower in the first meeting. She opened a door and in entered some plants of varying species and variants. Adarian continued.

"This is the team you will be working with." He pointed to a Bandit Cactus. "This, is Lorraine, she's the long range fire power." Adrian pointed to a Metal Petal. "Pete, meet Elanor, she'll be the medic." Finally, Adrian pointed to the last plant, the Power Chomper that had been escorting me around. "And this is Ash, I believe you two have already met." When Ash found out he would be spending at least a day with me, his expression dropped, his giant mouth frowned and he went to walk out. The other two plants, Lorraine and Elanor, gave me a questioning look then walked after Ash.

"Go after them, they're going to the garden now, don't fail Pete, you know the consequences." I set out after the other three plants that I would have to deal with for a day.

* * *

To get to the garden, we had to trek through a deserted section of suburbia that was crawling with the undead, no wonder Adrian lost contact with his team. We followed the route that Adrian gave us to find a badly damaged garden and a couple of severely injured plants. Elanor raced forward, well as fast as she could, and began tending to the wounded Jade Cactus and Law Pea. I took a position on a nearby roof, helping Lorraine get up to the roof, while Ash set up a few spikeweeds around the approach routes to the garden. Elanor must have been talking to the plants she was tending to because she called out to Ash and myself.

"Hey, Ash, Pete, come here." I jumped down from the roof and approached Elanor, Ash was already there.

"So, whats up?" Ash gave me a frown while Elanor stifled a giggle.

"The Cactus told me that the other two plants are knocked out and are somewhere down the road," She pointed down the easterly approach to the garden, ",That way." Ash spoke this time.

"So, we go and get them, bring them back here, and you revive them?" Elanor shook her head at Ash.

"No, I want Pete to recover them, I need you to cover him." Both Ash and myself looked completely shocked, Ash because he had to take second place to me, and I was shocked simply because Elanor had put me in charge of recovering the downed plants. Ash was outraged.

"NO WAY! We still can't completely trust him." Elanor was taken aback, she retaliated.

"You weren't there the night the attack happened, I was. Pete and his friend took on the Foot Soldiers, if they truly meant the worst, they would have left the Soldiers to rampage through suburbia. Plus, he can hyper them back, this will at least give them a fighting chance of survival." Elanor earned my respect because she at least trusted me. But I still missed Alison and the others, after this ordeal, I was going after them, even if I have to confront Zomboss himself. I spoke this time.

"Thank you Elanor. Ash, put aside your hate of me and help me get those plants." Ash growled at me and went on.

"Don't speak to me like that, you're nothing more than a traitorous idiot." I ignored Ash and set off, Ash's help or not, I was going to earn their trust, even if I had to die trying.

Halfway down the street, and thirteen dead, well dead again, browncoats later, I found the knocked out plants. I bent over and picked up a downed Fire Pea while I tried to figure out how to move the Armour Chomper. I hypered the Fire Pea back to Elanor, then headed back for the Armour Chomper. When I got back, there was a lot more browncoats, so to clear most of them out, I dropped a chili bean bomb into the horde. With most of the horde blown sky-high, I managed to get close enough to the downed Chomper. Unfortunately, the chomper was too heavy for me to move by myself and the horde was closing in. I knew no matter how hard I tried, I would never be able to move the chomper. I fell back a bit and opened fire on the remaining browncoats. No matter how many zombies I felled, I felt like I wasn't doing anything. Every zombie I returned to the grave seemed to be replaced immediately. I was prepared to fall back to the other plants when the road began to crack and Ash popped out of the ground and swallowed a zombie whole. The first few rows of zombies fled away from the Chomper in fear. With Ash's help, we managed to push the zombies back to the downed Armoured Chomper. I covered Ash as he pulled the Armour Chomper away from the horde. When we got back to Elanor, Lorraine came over to us and pulled a canister out of the satchel she was carrying. She threw it on the ground near the garden and it emitted a red smoke. A minute or so later, a flying RV came down from the sky and picked us up.


	9. Chapter 8: An estate fit for a maniac

A man with a pot on his head by the name of Crazy Dave was flying the RV. Inside the RV, it was cramped, it appeared our group wasn't the only group Crazy Dave picked up. I sat at the back of the RV and tried to distance myself from the other plants. I looked out the window to avoid the looks of the other plants, but I could feel them looking at me. Ash tried to get my attention but I ignored him, I never knew I would see the inside of a Chomper so soon. Ash had attempted to eat me head first, but a few plants grabbed my stem and pulled me out. If it weren't for the plants holding me back, I would have ripped into Ash. I brushed off the plants holding me back and I went back to my spot at the back of the RV. Elanor, the Metal Petal came over and told me to hold still. She pulled a bandage out of her medi-pack and wrapped it around my stem. Looking down, it appeared I had a large gash where Ash had bit me. I thanked Elanor and opened the window, which proved somewhat difficult provided that the lock was designed by and for humans. I looked out the window and thought about what would happen if I jumped. When I went to, the RV began to descend outside Adrian's HQ, I should at least say goodbye to Wulf. Crazy Dave dropped Elanor, Lorraine, Ash the injured plants that we had picked up at the garden, and myself, outside the HQ then set off to another part of suburbia. We were all immediately ushered inside and into the cramped meeting room. The injured plants were then almost immediately sent to a nearby infirmary while the rest of us took a seat at the table. Adrian sat at the head of the table and began to speak not too long after our arrival.

"So, how was Pete? Can we trust him or not?" Ash immediately spoke first.

"No. He's too much of a wildcard." Elanor was first to jump to my defence.

"In my opinion he's trustable, he did what he had to do. He saved the lives of more than one plant and took on a horde of browncoats nearly by himself. We also shouldn't discount what happened the night of the assault." Ash was about to speak but Adrian cut him off.

"So, we're at an impasse, unless Lorraine has something to say?" We all looked at Lorraine who simply shrugged then said.

"I don't know, personally I think he's alright, he helped us, that's enough for me." Ash was taken aback, I was shocked, Elanor looked happy and Adrian smirked. The awkward silence was broken by the Berry Pea.

"So, the verdict is in. Like I said, their trust is my trust and you've earned two thirds of it. You and Wulf are free to do whatever you want." When Adrian finished his sentence, the door behind him opened and Wulf walked over to me. As we were about to discuss the past few days, Ash interjected.

"You are kidding me, you can't let a couple of random plants disrupt what we've built." He walked out while muttering to himself. Lorraine left to, probably going to go sharpen her spikes, while Elanor spoke to us.

"So, what are you planning on doing, now that you're free and all?" I gave Wulf a questioning look, he returned the gaze. I looked at Elanor, a look of urgency in my eyes.

"Here isn't the best place to discuss it, do you know anywhere where we can get something to eat?" Elanor nodded and set off, both Wulf and myself followed her.

* * *

By the time we took a seat at the canteen that Elanor led us to, it was in the late evening. The canteen was loud enough that other plants couldn't eavesdrop on our conversation. I spoke first.

"I'm going to Zomboss' estate and breaking my friends out." Elanor gasped, gaining the attention of a few nearby plants.

"Why? The odds of them being still alive is, slim." I was going to yell at her when I realized I was in public and already an enemy to most plants. I sat down and Wulf spoke.

"You would be surprised, they're some of the toughest plants around, they won't give up because they know this maniac," He pointed at me ",Is probably alive and would

fight a few Gargantuars just to protect them." Elanor looked shocked, I spoke next.

"How do I get to Zomboss' estate? Elanor, you've, probably, been around suburbia long enough to know how to get there." She nodded, but how she spoke told me it was a waste of time to try.

"There's a portal device in many lawns, they can take you basically anywhere, but you have to be an officer." I nodded, it made sense. I had an idea though and thought it might work.

"Wulf, you're an officer, you're a Captain. You should be able to access the device." Wulf shook his head and broke the news.

"I was stripped of my position when I headed into the city. I wouldn't be able to access the machine." Elanor began to smile believing I wouldn't attempt to try and use the device by force. Unfortunately for her, that's exactly what I was thinking. Heading out of the canteen, I looked for a portal device.

Wulf and Elanor joined me on the walk, only Wulf had an idea what I was about to do. When I spotted one of the portal devices, I headed towards it and asked the operator to set the teleporter to Zomboss' estate. The plant in charge was an eccentric looking Citrus Cactus that simply looked up and saw Wulf. The Citrus Cactus looked like she had just seen a ghost.

"You, you're supposed to be dead, how did you survive out there?" Wulf looked at the Cactus and simply said.

"I found some true friends. Now, as a captain, I order you to teleport me and my companion to Zomboss' personal estate." The Cactus did so without complaint, Elanor was shocked. When the portal opened, I asked Elanor if she wanted to come. She simply nodded, so all three of us, Wulf,Elanor and myself, stepped through the portal before any plant could stop us.

* * *

The estate was huge, the entrance to Zomboss' Academy was on the western side of the complex while his mansion laboratory was at the heart of estate. Thanks to the teleporter, we could bypass the defenders on the wall. We wandered around the mansion looking for a way in. I found a way in just a hard boot hit me in the back of the head and I fell forward. The next few seconds were brief, A few kicks to the head and I blacked out again.


	10. Chapter 9: The zombie named Edgar

For once, I wished I woke up in an infirmary bed. I woke up on my back on a cold stone floor in what appeared to be a cell of some sorts. I heard a yell of joy from across the room, it sounded distinctly familiar.

"PETE! Oh my goodness you're alive." Alison! I couldn't believe it was actually her. Her expression changed from happiness to anger in 2 seconds. "You foolish idiot. You could have gotten yourself killed, trying to break into this estate, it's basically a suicide mission." Suddenly, a deranged voice spoke out.

"Of course it was a suicide mission. Trying to break into MY home, you foolish plants never learn." The chair at the end of room rotated to reveal the strangest zombie I had ever seen. They had a tattered labcoat and a giant brain. I racked my brain for a couple of seconds then I realized, I have heard that voice before.

"I know that voice." The sentence coming out as more of a whisper then anything. The zombie at the end of the room spoke up.

"Come on Pete, speak up. I know you know who I am, I mean, I was there that night." He knew my name, something I couldn't help but question. The bigger question for me though was.

"What night?" The zombie began to laugh. When he finally stopped laughing, he began.

"You know, the night your life was nearly taken, the night every plant you knew was wiped off the planet, the night my zombies began to take over." I remember now, the most eventful night no one should have to go through. I yelled out.

"YOU BASTARD! YOU'RE THE REASON I LOST EVERYTHING! And yes, now I remember who you are, Edgar." The zombie rolled there eyes and simply snorted.

"You know, I prefer you knocked out, or even better, in intense pain. Yes I like that thought." While he figured out ways to torture me, I looked at the other cells. As I looked, I was shocked. Peter and Cole had suffered the most physically, both were bruised and cut in so many places, it was a miracle they were still alive. Sonatra looked like she hadn't slept in a long time, Alison explained that Sonatra and herself were forced to watch Peter and Cole be physically tortured. When Zomboss stopped thinking of ways to torture me, an idea popped into my head.

"Hey, Zomboss." The zombie looked at me in disgust and spoke with venom in his voice.

"What do you want peashooter, I have little time to deal with filthy plants like you." I returned the look of disgust and tried to mimic the poisonous tone.

"I want to make a deal." The zombie merely laughed.

"You're in no position to make a deal." I continued on while he walked away.

"You want to hurt me, do it this way. Put me in an arena with a couple of my friends, if we lose, you can do whatever you want to me. If we win though, we all get to go free." Zomboss stopped and clearly thought about it. He turned around a couple of minutes later.

"Fine then, I agree, you have a day to recover and prepare your team of, lets say three plants." With that he walked out to do whatever it was he did outside his mansion.

* * *

Once Zomboss was gone, Alison called me a fool, I ignored her, I was too busy planning for the next day. I had an overlook at the plants that were in the room. There was Wulf, Peter and myself, the Peashooters. Alison, Sonatra and Eleanor, the Sunflowers. No cacti surprisingly, I wonder what happened to Cherie. And there were two Chompers, Cole and Ash?! Ash saw my shocked expression and growled.

"You idiot, you couldn't let them go, now you're going to get us all killed." Alison was taken aback and verbally ripped into Ash.

"You're the idiot, he had the guts to try and infiltrate one of the most zombie infested areas in Suburbia to honour a promise that would have killed him with guilt if not fulfilled." Ash looked terrified of Alison. When Alison stopped ripping into Ash, I gave her a smile.

"You know, I'm going to fulfil this promise, if It's the last thing I do." Alison blushed and asked me.

"So how are you going to take down Zomboss' gladiators? How are you going to come out of this alive?" I looked into her eyes and simply said in a tone of disdain.

"I have no idea." I looked around at the cells and asked the other plants. "Who isn't injured badly?" Despite their terrible states, Peter and Cole claimed they weren't while Alison, Wulf and Elanor signaled they weren't either. Of these plants, Alison and, if I could help it, Peter and Cole wouldn't be coming into the arena with me. If they wanted to, Wulf and Elanor could join me, but that left a spot open. While not needing to be filled, it did improve our survival chances. I eventually announced.

"Alison, Peter and Cole aren't coming into the arena with me. Wulf and Elanor can if they want to, if not then I will accept my fate and try to take as many of them with me as possible." Alison, Peter and Cole were outraged, Wulf and Elanor looked happy to be doing something to get out of here. Ash was the first of us to bring up the four plant team though.

"So, who's going to bet the fourth plant?" I looked over at him and told them.

"Hopefully not Alison, Peter or Cole, they have already suffered and if I lost Alison, I don't know what I would do." Ash smiled and said.

"Let me be the fourth plant, I couldn't live if I lost Elanor. I'm sorry for being a dick to you, I wasn't sure if you were serious about your friends or not." The Chomper clearly wasn't lying. I couldn't help it, I eventually made my reply.

"Fine Ash, I trust you." But should I? I don't know, for now, we had to help each other to get out of this mess.

For the rest of the day, we all prepared for the coming fight, we knew, this was going to either be our last battle or the beginning of a new life.


	11. Chapter 10: A mad zombies sport

I don't know how long it had been since Zomboss and I had made the deal, but when the door into the dungeon opened and he walked in with some guards, we knew what was coming. Zomboss ordered his retinue to unlock the cells and shackle us, which went far too smoothly for Zomboss' liking.

"What's up with you lot, why aren't you making this hard?" I looked up at the strange looking zombie.

"Don't want to get tired in the arena." Zomboss simply snorted, turned around and signalled his guards to bring us forward. His guard consisted of two Foot Soldiers and two All-Stars, while Zomboss himself carried a strange looking blaster behind his back. The blaster had electricity arcing all over it and probably shot electricity. Zomboss looked over his shoulder while he walked.

"Who's in the arena?" The question took me by surprise.

"Uh, Ash, Wulf, Elanor and myself." Zomboss sniggered.

"You pick the traitor, the coward and the medic, you're death is going to be a swift one… unfortunately." Ash growled but was shut up by one of the All-Stars who bludgeoned him from behind with his football cannon. When we reached the preparation room which led into the arena, Zomboss gave us a minute to say goodbye.

"I won't die, I will get us out of her." She began to cry so I pulled her into a hug. She managed to say through the tears.

"I want to believe you, I really do, but, I just don't think there's going to be a happy ending for us." I released her, looked into her eyes and said.

"If we aren't supposed to have one, I will make us have one." She smiled and hugged me. Just as I went to say something to her, one of the Foot Soldiers grabbed her and pulled her out the door. I would make sure we got through this.

The gate into the arena opened up, me, Elanor, Wulf and Ash stepped into the arena. I was amazed that Zomboss had this under his mansion, it was huge. In the crowd appeared to be mainly zombies from his damn academy while a small section had PLANTS! In fact it was Alison, Sonatra, Peter, Cole and some other plants I had never seen before. Zomboss must have an entire prison, not just a dungeon. Zomboss addressed the crowd.

"Fellow zombies," he glared at the plant section, "and other things. Welcome to the first and, hopefully, not last vanquish battle between plants," A boo rang out across the crowd, which overpowered the small hoorah from the plants. "and the zombies." This time the boos were drowned out by the applause. A gate at the far end of the arena opened and Zomboss yelled out.

"LET THE GAMES BEGIN."

* * *

A salvo of ZPG's came flying across the arena towards us, which we all promptly dodged. The arena was, thankfully, covered with debris we could use as cover. Both sides knew this and our zombie adversaries headed for cover. I looked over the flipped table I was using as cover and spotted a zombie that was preoccupied reloading. I managed to get him with about five peas, before he could duck into cover, the overwhelming noise of boos sounded out. The noise of a warping scientist sounded out to my right, which was quickly followed by a shotgun blast tearing through my right side. The crowd screamed out in joy while the yells of terror could barely be heard. I rolled with the blast to try and limit the impact, but it still hit hard. I expected a quick follow up blast, so it surprised me when I looked towards the scientist who was being chomped by Ash, who gave me a smile. Elanor came over and tended to the wound while Wulf kept the other zombies at bay. When Elanor finally let me get up, she went and attended to Wulf who had suffered quite a few shots, making me feel bad. As far as we had seen, there were around ten zombies, all of them elites. Two scientists, which was now down to one. Five soldiers, an Engineer and two All-Stars. Thanks to the size of the arena, we could easily dodge the ZPG's the soldiers fired and we were out of range of the damaging effects of the clouds. As we exchanged fire, nothing really happened, the zombies outranged Ash, we outranged their most effective abilities. Because the zombies were effective communicators due to their training, they must have formulated a plan. Two of the Foot Soldiers used their gas clouds to cover their advance while the All-Stars used their cannons to suppress us in place. By the time the cannons stopped firing, a yell of applause rang out across the crowd, I turned to find the zombies had surrounded our position. The Foot Soldiers behind us bent over and fired their ZPG's at Ash and Wulf who were busy dealing with an All-Star. I yelled out at them but only Wulf heard me, Wulf managed to dodge it but Ash, who was chomping an All-Star took the ZPG and fell, I hypered up to one of the Foot Soldiers, jumped on them and proceeded to punch them in head rapidly and angrily. When the zombie I was on finally succame to the blows, the crowd booed in anger while the plants were exuberant. I turned my attention to the other Foot Soldier who was dealing with Wulf who promptly finished him off. I looked over at Elanor.

"Get Ash, we'll take care of the other zombies." She nodded and picked Ash up, while Wulf and myself dealt with the last few zombies.

Wulf and I charged across the centre of the arena to the yells of the crowd. The last All-Star opened fire on us, we returned the fire and sent him down onto the ground. The last scientist warped in front of us and fired on me, the crowd screamed in joy as I was blown backwards. Wulf turned and fired on the scientist, a few shots to the head and the scientist collapsed. The crowd yelled in anger as Wulf picked me up and we carried on. Now there were three soldiers and an engineer somewhere.

As I thought about where the zombies were, the crowd roared out in applause. The engineer zombie charged out from behind his cover on a jackhammer followed by an army of robots. Wulf and I ran for the nearest cover, while the floor of the arena became cracked and Ash came out of the ground and swallowed the Engineers jackhammer. The engineer proceeded to throw a sonic grenade at Ash, stunning him, and fired some concrete bombs at the Power Chomper. I was going to ask Wulf to deal with the engineer when the engineer was filled with metal spikes and fell to them, it was Elanor. I turned and started to deal with some of the robots advancing on us with Wulf. The robots were a pain to deal with, the rockets some of them fired didn't have the power of a ZPG, but they still packed a punch. Elanor screamed out as the crowed yelled out in jubilation. Elanor collapsed and we all looked at her. She lay there, blacked out. I ran up to her and began reviving her when a shot pierced my stem and I yelped in pain. The crowd was ecstatic, I jumped behind some cover and asked Wulf to try and find out who was shooting. I turned to the Ash and asked if he could get Elanor over to me. He did and I managed to revive her to the disappointment of the crowd. Elanor patched me up and I headed after one of the soldiers that thought it was safe to come out. I filled him full of peas and he fell to the yells of anger of the crowd. Another zombie yelled out as Ash chomped them. The crowd went wild when the scream of a Peashooter rang through the arena, Wulf was in trouble.

I found Wulf covering a serious wound in his stem behind a flipped over couch, this was the work of a Camo Ranger that was hiding somewhere. Elanor and Ash came over to us and tended to Wulf while Ash and I found the Camo Ranger hiding behind a table. I hypered towards the Camo Ranger and kept him distracted while Ash burrowed beneath the Camo Ranger and chomped him from below.

* * *

With the last zombie gone, the crowd was in outrage, Zomboss calmed them down though and announced.

"Congratulations plants, you have earned your leave, please come out so that I may see you." We came out and presented ourselves to Zomboss, who then proceeded to pull out his blaster and shoot us with it. The blaster shots didn't hit us, but placed an electronic cage around us. Zomboss then laughed and spoke in a mocking tone.

"You fools, you really thought I was going to let you go? Ha, I'm not jeopardizing the war to release some of the best plant fighters to honour a deal. You will keep fighting till you fall in that arena. Of course you will get every second day off, if you survive." I grabbed the bars, which was a terrible idea, I was shocked into submission and collapsed onto the floor. Despite this, I managed to push myself up a bit.

"You coward. I will keep fighting until I get us out of here." Zomboss laughed and looked down at us.

"It doesn't matter, all of suburbia will be mine in a few days, a paradise for zombies. Of course thanks to the help of a plant." All the plants in the arena gasped, the rumor of a plant's betrayal was true. Zomboss continued. "I think you'll find that time is on my side from now on out." With that, we were taken back to our cells, how could this get any worse?


	12. Chapter 11: The keys to freedom

A Foot Soldier dragged Wulf, Elanor and myself while an All-Star had to drag Ash, back to our cells. The Foot Soldier dragging me basically threw me into the cell when we got there. I landed on my back and gave the Foot Soldier an unrivaled death glare. Alison, who was already back, yelled at the zombie.

"YOU MONSTER!" The zombie ignored the two of us and walked off, after locking my cell door. I sat up and looked at the other plants in the cell block, we were all here except for Peter. I looked around and he definitely wasn't there. A few minutes passed by until the door into the dungeon opened and Peter was thrown into the room. He was swiftly followed in by an All-Star who promptly beat Peter in front of us. The size of the bars prevented any of us from firing on the All-Star. When the All-Star finished, he grabbed Peter and threw him into his cell. To our astonishment, Peter coughed and opened his eyes as he leant against the back wall of his cell. Cole spoke to Peter first.

"You stubborn fool, you knew what would happen if you fought back. You look like you've been beaten to a pulp." Peter laughed a little and spoke weakly.

"I know, but it was the right thing to do. They put their lives on the line for us, I… I thought I should return the favour." I looked at the beaten Commando Peashooter and spoke sadly.

"You didn't have to do that, you know. I'd put my life on the line for any plant for nearly any reason." Peter looked down.

"Why do you do that though? Aren't you afraid of death?" Peter looked at me and I replied jokingly.

"I think I fear Alison more than a horde of gargantuars." Wulf, Peter, Cole, Ash and myself laughed at that, Elanor was unimpressed and Alison was furious. Alison looked at me and joked.

"Remember who has to pick you up if you go down. I could leave you there and see if you fear death then." Alison finally laughed. The sound of laughter was quickly quelled by Zomboss' voice.

"Enough of that horrible noise. So, how did you enjoy the arena." The sarcastic tone in his voice was obvious. The zombie sat in the same chair as normal and looked at us, we glared back.

"The arena was fine." I stuck him with a steely gaze and continued in an intimidating voice. "But you are a coward and a liar Edgar George Zomboss, you went back on our deal and you will suffer the price." Zomboss simply laughed.

"Look at your friend Peter, do you think that's the worst I can make you suffer? Think again. By the way, you aren't the only plants to believe in my word. I'm about to take over suburbia thanks to a certain Peashooter by the name of Peater. Peashooters, ha, gullible, Peater wanted a time machine to go back and save his parents. I am going to repurpose the time machine to prevent this prolonged war from starting in the first place." Oh my goodness, the rumours about Peater were true, we really had to get out of here and warn suburbia. I interrupted Zomboss' monologuing for a second.

"So how are you going to do that, prevent this war from happening?" The zombie laughed and said.

"If you really want to know, I'm going back to the beginning of this war to end it before it begins by preventing you nuisances from existing in the first place." He was going to kill the first of us and if he succeeds then there will be nothing to protect suburbia. Zomboss wished us a terrible evening and headed out, we had to get out of here.

* * *

Despite our best attempts, none of us could break out. After a few minutes, Peter came up with a plan. First cause enough trouble to have a guard come in and investigate the trouble. Next, they unlock one of our cells and when they aren't looking, someone knocks them out. The free plant then unlocks our cells and we find our way out. It sounded like a great plan, but we got to bypass the first step. A scientist entered the room, opened my cell and pulled me out. I pretended not to care until the zombie went to lock the cell door. The zombies grip was weak, they probably underestimated my strength because I broke out of their grip easily and knocked them out with a quick barrage of peas. I got the keys and unlocked the other cells. Just as we prepared to leave, a few Foot Soldiers entered the room. They had no chance and fell quickly. We knew we had to hurry, other zombies might be suspicious if they passed this section of the mansion so we headed into Zomboss' home.

For a zombie, his home was nice, large and clean. We only ran up on a few zombies but there were more and more the closer we got to the exit and if we weren't careful, we ran the risk of setting off the alarms. Thankfully we managed to get out of the mansion without a problem, but now we had to get back to suburbia. The trek across Zomboss' garden was uneventful and quick, but the wall was going to be the biggest problem, there were zombies stationed all over it, and I feared losing Alison again so I didn't want us to split. The chompers had an idea, if they burrowed beneath the wall, there was a chance for a plant or two to follow behind them as the burrowed.

So with Ash and Cole burrowing beneath with the Sonatra and Elanor, It was up to Wulf and myself to get Peter and Alison over because we didn't want Peter to black out after over exerting his body like I did. I hypered over the wall with Alison while Wulf did the same with Peter. We hid against the wall so none of the patrolling zombies saw us. We were free and Zomboss will be mad when he finds out we escaped, which might be a while because we could see his blimp flying out in the direction of suburbia. I wondered to myself, what's that zombie planning?


	13. Chapter 12: A new world

There was no way to get to Suburbia without being spotted by the Zombie guards on Zomboss' Estate wall, our best chance was to regain some energy and run for it. The goal was simple, outrun the guards long enough to lose them. We decided the best chance was to do the same thing we did to get past the wall. I would hyper Alison and myself, while Wulf hypered Peter and himself. The two Chompers, Ash and Cole, would burrow as far and fast as they could with the other two Sunflowers, Sonatra and Eleanor. We spent a minute recovering then made the run for the other side of the street where we could lose the guards in a cluster of houses. I hypered first with Alison at an angle away from the house we were meeting in to distract the Zombie guards long enough for the other plants to get to the house unscathed. It took a few seconds for the Zombies on guard duty to notice me, but as soon as they did, they opened fire. A few of the yellow pellets the Foot Soldiers fired did manage to graze my stem in a couple of places. We got to cover though and the Zombies, thankfully, didn't pursue. We snuck over to the meeting house and met up with the six other plants. Inside I asked if they were noticed, thankfully they weren't. We then discussed how we were going to get to Suburbia. Ash was first to bring it up.

"So, what do we do when we get back? We'll be branded as traitors." Wulf looked over at Ash and spoke in a tone of conviction.

"I was, we can get out of this." I looked at Ash and thought, how did Ash get here in the first place? I decided to ask him.

"Ash, how did you end up here with us?" Ash looked up and smiled a little.

"I saw you, Wulf and Elanor enter the teleporter, so using my officer status, I ordered the teleporter crew to teleport me to where you all did." That made sense, he did express interest in Elanor. I nodded, it made sense. Alison spoke next while Elanor and Sonatra attended to the wounded Chomper and Commando Peashooter.

"We need to warn the the plants, try find that machine and shut it down." I wanted to shut that machine down, but the injuries some of my friends had sustained, they might have been more important. As I thought about this, I began to formulate a plan.

"No, right now, we need to warn the plants and attend to our wounded friends." Alison agreed. We moved out towards Suburbia and came up with ways of telling the others the danger we were all in.

* * *

It took around three days for us to get back to Suburbia, and when we did, all hell had broken loose. Purple teleporter beams were coming down from the sky while smoke from fires burned deep into Suburbia. We sped up and found a Fume-Shroom hiding in a crumbling house. We went up to them and asked what had happened. They simply said that a huge, extremely advance Zombie army advanced through Suburbia and basically crushed the unaware plant defenders. We thanked the fume-shroom and carried on. After an hour of walking in no real direction, I saw a strange green blur moving ahead, it turned out to be an advance Peashooter. They were too far away to try and get their attention so I didn't bother pointing them out or trying to signal them down, I couldn't help but ponder where they going? I put it out of mind as we tried to find some sign of plant life.

It took around half an hour for us to find signs of plant life, and when we did, I was shocked. We managed to find an overcrowded infirmary, some plants being treated on the floor instead of beds and there clearly weren't enough Sunflowers to help them all out. Alison, Elanor and Sonatra immediately went to help, Peter and Cole were treated better while Wulf, Ash and myself helped by taking up guard positions in case the Infirmary was attacked. After an hour of waiting, a strange purple teleporter beam came down from the sky and a horde of Zombies was dropped down nearby. I pointed it out to Ash, Wulf and a nervous looking scaredy-Shroom it appeared the infirmary was the target. The Scaredy-Shroom used their superior range to pick off some of the browncoats, but it was up to Wulf, Ash and myself mainly. Both Wulf and I went Gatling and held back the horde long enough for other plants who weren't so injured, to come out and help. A handful of elites dropped down on our flanks and opened fire on us. The poor Scaredy-Shroom tried to hide but was vanquished quickly by a Pirate?! They promptly turned their attention to me, but I was too fast, I got them with a burst of peas and they fell, Wulf dealt with the other elite who appeared to be a Foot Soldier. With the elites gone, a voice boomed out from above, it was Zomboss' blimp.

"You think you've won?! That was just a taster of what's to come so say goodbye to your pitiful existence." The bottom of the blimp opened and a strange looking robot dropped down and it appeared to be run by an Imp?! What's an Imp doing being part of the Elite? The Imp must have seen my questioning look and spoke in a sadistic tone.

"Yes, I am an Imp, and you're about to be dead." The Imp fired the robots cannons which, thanks to the last few weeks, I dodged. Ash burrowed behind the robot and shocked it from behind, which must have short circuited the robot because the Imp ejected and the robot exploded. When the smoke cleared and a, Fire Cactus had vanquished the Imp, we were shocked, Ash had been vanquished in the explosion and no matter what the Sunflowers tried they couldn't revive him. Zomboss must have been satisfied because he sounded like that when he announced over the loudspeaker in his blimp.

"That is what will happen to you all, make it faster and give in." With that, the bastard Zomboss flew away, probably laughing all the way. Elanor came out and immediately broke down, the eldest Sunflowers couldn't revive him, Elanor definitely couldn't. I went up to her and spoke in a sympathetic tone.

"You know, he died a hero, he saved this entire infirmary by short circuiting the robot that would have made quick work of us." Elanor nodded, it was going to be hard for her to get over losing someone she had clearly known for a long time. I knew Ash was a dick to me at times, but I wish he hadn't died, I was going to sorely miss his company. With Zombies still in the area, we decided to give Ash a quick burial beneath a tree that appeared to still be standing despite being fired on, a lot.

Ash was buried quickly and none of us got to properly say goodbye, we had to return to the infirmary to protect it, but I swore that I would return one day to give Ash the hero's burial he deserved. We held the infirmary long enough to evacuate the injured plants, but once they were evacuated, we abandoned the position. Zomboss has clearly used the time machine to alter the future, but if his plan had been successful, we all shouldn't exist. I put this thought to the back of my mind, the fight has only truly begun.


	14. Chapter 13: A story of hope

It had been a few days since we lost Ash, a power Chomper who gave his life to protect an infirmary full of injured plants. I sat in front of a fire opposite the, literally, hottest Sunflower ever. Her name was Alison, she was slightly smaller than most Sunflowers, wore a pair of crooked aviator glasses and her petals were actual fire. The fire Sunflower had been at my side for just over a week now, and, despite losing her once, I swore to never let her leave my sight. Alison had a look of deep thought on her face and asked me.

"What did happen that night? You know, the one you and Zomboss were discussing." I looked up, I was surprised by the question. I knew I wouldn't be able to put it off forever, so I spoke to the entire group.

"Anyone want to hear a story." A bunch of nearby plants came over, a few of which were thankfully my friends. The Commando Peashooter, Peter, the Chomper, Cole, the Plasma Pea, Wulf and the Metal Petal, Elanor. A few plants mumbled and a Snapdragon asked.

"So, what and why do you want to tell a story?" A couple of plants mumbled in agreement, I simply replied.

"We have to keep our hopes up and not give in, some of you have already given up. We need something to keep our hopes up and Alison has provided that opportunity. If you don't want to hear the story go, but it's a story that strikes me harder than any Zombie could." Alison gave me a questioning look but I ignored it and continued on. "It's the story of what happened to me, one fateful night four years ago." There were murmurs and questioning glances. Wulf broke up the murmuring and asked.

"Is this the night, that you could not talk about last week?" I nodded, I couldn't hold this in forever and sometimes, letting go was better than holding it in. I began to speak in a somber.

"It all happened, around four years ago..."

* * *

 _Flashback Four Years_

* * *

Who knew an attic could be home to so many plants. Our planter was eaten three days ago by an imp that a Gargantuar fired over the plant defenders. The few plants that survived the chaos that ensued were now hiding in the attic. A hole in the roof let us see out to a neighboring house where a human was still planting for survival. At the moment, it was me, the Peashooter named Pete, my older brother, the Repeater Jack, my friend, the Torchwood, Flame and my brothers girlfriend, the Sunflower, Josie. We were watching the plant defenders next door take down Zombie after Zombie. All afternoon they fought and when dusk came, the Zombies retreated and the plants went to do their evening chores. My mum, an Ice Pea named Elaine, called me and my brother over for dinner. I said goodbye to my friend while Jack my brother kissed Josie, I made a face of disgust and went over to the table that was set up in the middle of the attic. When all three of us plants were at the table, we began eating, unaware of what was about to happen.

A strange looking Zombie was in the hole in the roof looking at us, we had no idea how he got there, but the sight of him was enough to shock us all. We all ducked for cover as strange yellow pellets flew out of the device it held and vanquished a Fume-Shroom. The Zombie made a strange grunting sound and soon, normal Zombies were filling into the attic. The yells and screams were deafening, a few plants fought back, but were quickly vanquished by the strange Zombie that still stood in the hole. I was hiding with my brother in a small gap between some sacks of fertilizer and the roof where we could see the hole, but nothing could see us. A few minutes passed before a giant metallic hand enlarged the hole and a robots head presented itself. In it, a stranger looking Zombie laughed and congratulated the strange Zombie that had vanquished so many plants with its strange weapon. The Zombie in the robot pointed at the hole we were hiding in, we both spotted this and my brother threw me deeper in. He was swiftly grabbed and taken away, the strange Zombie fired and I heard a thump on the floor, I presumed they shot him.

I began to cry, I had lost everything. I was sitting in a small crevice in an attic full of Zombies crying. Everyone I knew, probably gone, it was a miracle I was alive. The noise of boots and feet walking along the floor meant the Zombies were leaving. It took half an hour for the Zombies to clear out the attic, at which point I left my hiding spot and I was met with the most horrific sight. Dead plants littered the floor, most had multiple, small wounds, probably caused by the strange Zombies weapon. With nothing left for me in the attic, I decided to leave.

After gathering everything that was of value to me, I jumped out of the hole in the roof, the jump was higher than I expected and I hit the ground with a thump. I got up and wandered the streets, heading no place in particular. Around three hours after leaving, a strange flying RV landed nearby and picked me up. Inside, a man named Crazy Dave was flying the RV rather crazily. I took a seat on a couch while it appeared I wasn't the only plant in there. A Fire Pea introduced himself as Kendrick, a Chomper introduced themselves as Vinnie, and a Sunflower introduced themselves as Alexa. We talked about how we ended up in Crazy Dave's RV for about quarter of an hour as the human flew us to his home. It was a large mansion that Crazy Dave clearly took pride in.

When we were all inside, he brought us into a lab he had in his home, no wonder he was called Crazy. He asked one of us to volunteer to enter a new machine he had just finished. Kendrick was first to volunteer so Dave put him into the machine and activated it. After a few seconds the machine began to glow and Kendrick yelled out. When the machine stopped glowing, Kendrick stepped out, and he had pods? The fire Peashooter appeared to have arms with pods on the end of them. We all went through the machine and came out new. Crazy Dave said that we were the first of the new 'advanced' plants...

* * *

 _Back to the Present_

* * *

"So that's what happened that night, I became the fourth advanced plant, at the expense of my family and friends. A few days later, Crazy Dave taught us about our new abilities, hyper, chili bean bomb etc. I ran away after that, I wandered suburbia and eventually stumbled upon the border, I crossed it and headed into Zomcity."

I looked up at the plants around me, they appeared enthralled in the story. When I stopped, most of the plants left, discussing the story and wondering if it happened or not. I looked at Alison, she came over, hugged me and spoke.

"You're brave to tell a story like that, but why? Why tell it to everyone here?" She released me, I looked into her eyes and said.

"Because I didn't give up when I lost everything, and now that some plants have lost everything, they're losing hope, I tried to restore some of their faith with that story." I said goodnight to everyone still at the fire and went to bed.


	15. Chapter 14: Becoming a leader (Epilogue)

It had been a long week, the constant retreat out of the path of the zombies was starting to take its toll on all of us. The week of fighting and running had resulted in all thirty odd plants left in our group injured, ranging from bruises to cuts and wounds so bad that the sunflowers couldn't properly heal them in one night. The new elite zombies so far have helped the zombies push us plants deep into suburbia, and their advance looked like it wasn't going to stop anytime soon. No matter how hard we fought, it seemed we had no effect on the war, every zombie felled was replaced by two. It was now a war of attrition and there was no way us plants had a chance of winning, there were too few of us. We were using an abandoned restaurant in a small shopping center as our base for a couple of days while a few of the critically injured plants healed up. We took turns watching for zombie assaults, but none had passed through the area in the first day of our occupation, which was good.

* * *

I was on watch with Wulf and Cole when Alison came onto the roof and sat with me. She wrapped an arm around me and spoke.

"You know Pete, I'm glad of all the plant's I could have been stuck with throughout this dilemma, I'm stuck with you." I looked at her and smiled.

"I'm glad i'm stuck with you, you're the reason I'm still here afterall." Her petals glew brighter at the compliment, she continued by saying.

"Why do you want to throw yourself in harm's way? It's always boggled me." My smile faded and I looked at the setting sun, the Mushrooms would be on duty soon. I spoke with Alison in a somber tone.

"I do it because, the physical wounds I take, could save another plant's life. I feel guilty when a plant gets hurt because I chose to be afraid of a few pellets or rockets." Alison gave me a chastising look and spoke to me like my late mother might have.

"You need to be at least somewhat reserved, remember I won't always be around to pick you up." I looked at her and laughed.

"I know, but you're the first plant I would jump in front of to body block a rocket or pellets." She ' _tsked'_ and said.

"Your funeral then." She got up and was about to walk downstairs when a powerful explosion got me from behind and sent me flying across the roof. Darkness was all I could see after the explosion. The darkness was quickly filled with light and before I knew it, I was back, eyes open, back burning in pain. I looked at Alison, who clearly revived me.

"See, you could never let me die." She ' _tsked'_ again and dropped me onto the concrete roof, someone tripped the alarm. I got up and rubbed my back, now was the worst time for back pains. Pushing through it, I found Wulf and asked what happened. He replied and said.

"You were clearly hit by a ZPG while you weren't looking, you went flying across the roof and Alison got you up, I managed to get the soldier who did it though." I smiled at Wulf for avenging me, but the sound of gunfire meant that more zombies were approaching. A few tall nuts had set themselves up as cover for us as a large number of elites closed in on the store.

* * *

I took a position on the frontline with most of the plants, it seemed my presence after taking a direct ZPG emboldened the plants. We opened fire and it was an awesome sight, peas, spikes, goop and all manners of different projectiles headed at the elites of Zomboss' army. They retaliated with greater firepower, but these elites seemed to be new, Zomboss must think us weak, the fool. Over half of the Elites fell in the first few seconds of battle, the rest, found cover behind debris. It seemed that the recruits had the support of an experienced elite because a Camo Ranger was picking us off one by one. In an attempt to clear him out, I hypered over the tallnut barricades and charged across the battlefield. An All-Star fired on me from the side as I passed his cover. I managed to dodge most of the footballs he fired, but I still took a few and stumbled a bit. Despite the minor stubble, I kept running towards the other end of the parking lot. When I reached the other side, I took cover behind a wrecked car, the zombies that were targeting the store targeted me. I shot at a few and a few shot back, a couple of foot soldiers got a few lucky shots in, but I could take worse, it was the Camo Ranger I worried about at the moment. One thing about the zombies attacking me instead is that they became easy targets for the plants still on the restaurant roof. Just as I felt like I could make a run for a nearby roof, a large, powerful pellet pierced through my stem. I yelped in pain and jumped into a collapsing store. The Camo Ranger called out.

"So the great Pete fears a single pellet, Zomboss would be disappointed I couldn't prolong your death." The zombie laughed. "Don't worry Pete, I will prolong the death of that damn sunflower of yours though, what's her name, Alison." The zombie continued to laugh. I swallowed as the sound of the battle, it was turning in the zombies favour, the plants must be giving up. I jumped out of the store and made myself visible to the plants on the resteraunt. The Camo Ranger laughed even louder and called out. "Good bye you green pest." The Camo Ranger pulled the trigger and must have been shocked, I dodged the pellet and called out to the zombie.

"You harm one petal on Alison, I will come back from the grave and murder you." The plants yelled in applause and doubled their efforts to hold the restaurant and the battle swung back in our favour. I saw the Camo Ranger on a roof lining up another shot on me. I didn't care there was a deep hole in my stem, I hypered up onto the roof the Camo Ranger was on and proceeded to punch him. After a few punches, the Camo Ranger pushed me off him and he pounced on me. Below, the battle stopped as both plants and zombies watched the battle between the Peashooter and the Camo Ranger ensue. We exchanged punches for a bit, the zombies ability to form fists clearly hit harder. We pushed each other away and opened fire, my pea finishing him off, his pellet nearly doing so. I collapsed forward and caught myself with my pods, the zombies cried out in anger while the plants yelled in triumph. The nine elite zombies still standing retreated. I made my way down to the ground to be greeted by most of the plants. Little did I know, I was about to become a leader.


End file.
